Fix the child support mess

December 20, 2002

Let's start with what everybody agrees on:

- Illinois' record of collecting child support from deadbeat parents is terrible. Illinois has the worst record for collections of any state. Only 38 percent of the $2.61 billion owed to Illinois children was collected during 2001, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. Only the District of Columbia did worse.

- Nearly 800,000 Illinois children last year never saw a dime of what they were owed by a parent for their food, health and development.

- At nearly $188 million a year to administer the program, the system costs far too much for such pitiful results.

Where agreement falls apart is over how to fix the problem.

State legislators recently passed a well-constructed reform that would streamline the unwieldy bureaucracy and place responsibility for child support collections with the state's attorneys of the various counties. That means only one person would handle each case, from beginning to end--a monumental change from the way things work today.

The measure is sure to increase accountability and diminish confusing bureaucracy as case files bounce among as many as a half dozen agencies. Then there's this reality: A menacing letter from the state's attorney's office telling a deadbeat to pay up carries more heft than a menacing letter from the public aid office.

The measure also is permissive, rather than mandated, so that each county may decide for itself whether to adopt this model. The state's attorneys of Cook County and DuPage County--where most of Illinois' child support cases are concentrated--are eager to do so.

So what's the beef?

Government employee unions don't like the fact that jobs will be shifted to non-union agencies. Cook County Board President John Stroger doesn't like the fact that he will lose some authority. That argument is somehow holding sway over Gov. George Ryan, who is now rethinking his earlier commitment to sign the bill.

And then there's Gov.-elect Rod Blagojevich, who prefers a different plan entirely. He wants to create a special bureau for child support directly under his control. The bureau would be staffed by case managers to work directly with parents and specialized investigators to track down deadbeat parents.

Blagojevich deserves credit for acknowledging the problem during his campaign and being committed to fixing it. Unfortunately his answer creates a new bureaucracy when what's needed is a reduction of the number of agencies handling each case.

The thoughtful, bipartisan plan passed by the legislature was developed over years of hard and careful work by state Reps. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), Eileen Lyons (R-Western Springs) and Patti Bellock (R-Westmont). What a shame it will be if an idea to serve children better falls prey to politics and preservation of patronage.